Post your Best Groupon Experience

I continue to purchase Groupons, Living Socials, etc.  and it is truly hit or miss.  I have currently in my calendar four tourist activities for when the family visits (come on, underwater scooters! and hamster balls! stay tuned), three restaurants, two personal services (massages) and one product.  I have only bought Groupons for restaurants I have been to (Indigo, Banzai Sushi, Kobe Steakhouse) and I have decided to no longer purchase the personal services (so difficult to get an appointment most places and one place scared me, located in an apartment on Kuhio!). 

After the responses that I have gotten regarding Koko Crater Stables, I thought maybe this would be a great idea to continue on with this blog (it was sooo on the chopping block).

Would love to hear about your experiences.  Let's start with the good ones.  After all, it is Friday!

Groupon: Koko Crater Stables "Trail"riding

Groupon provides beautiful pictures and eloquent/fun descriptions to woo you into buying there deal of the day.  Don't get me wrong, there are great deals and I have been enjoying my discounted, sometimes more than half, events, dinners, and oh yes, massages.  When stepkid visist for summer, it's perfect. Koko Crater Stables offered a half off groupon for horseback riding in the beautiful koko crater (just $30, you get a one-hour horseback ride).  

The Groupon Read: Nestled in the lush crater of a dormant volcano, Koko Crater Stables offers a picturesque backdrop for horseback escapades. Visitors can take a one-hour jaunt along the flora-lined trails traversing the crater's verdant interior. Led by one of the stable's experienced horse trainers, the excursion will provide views of the crater rim, chances to spot native wildlife, and sweeping oceanic panoramas undisturbed by the presence of unspeakably tentacled behemoths.
I bought three.

The difficulties began when the stable was not prepared for the 1314 groupons purchased.  No one answered the phone number listed.  The voice mailbox was full.  We emailed and got no response.  When we got an email response regarding our ride time, it took them a week to return a confirmation, so no go.  Eventually the stepkid went home and the husband got deployed.  Unhappy groupon buyer.  Now what was I supposed to do with these?

Eventually, a repeat of above occurred, an unpleasant phone conversation with the manager of the stable (at 9pm at night when she phoned me), and I was finally booked for Statehood day, August 19.  It took a while to get some takers (if you can believe that!) but I finally got a friend and her daughter excited about going.  All set, FINALLY.

The manager of the stable called me and woke me up at 7am on my day off to confirm some information.  Not starting off the day on a good footing.  I live on the Leeward (west) side of Oahu.  It takes an hour to get to Koko Crater, on the north eastern side of the island by Sandy Beach. The drive takes you through the traffic of Honolulu but the ride through Hawaii Kai, around Hanama Bay and the Blow Hole and Sandy Beach was spectacular.  What looked like an overcast morning was turning into a beautiful afternoon.  Let's see some scenary on horseback!

We get there, it was a bit disorganized but not bad.  We get our helmets, shut up so cute, and go to find our horses.  While we are standing there, my friend's daughter was excited (hooray) about her horse Muffin, chatting with her "expert trainer" while her mom snapped photos.  I watched as my quarterhorse, Buddy, was led towards me, brushes up against a small bushy tree, startles, steps on his lead, breaks his bridle, rears up and the "expert trainer" drops the lead and calms him.  All less then ten feet away.  Did I mention I am not afraid of horses and used to ride as a kid?  But this did not make me feel confident.  The "expert" assured me all was well as we began to walk towards the mounting platform.  We walk up a bit path to a corral, my "expert" recommending we stay a horse-length or so behind the horse in front of us because Buddy doesn't really like other horses (uhm, huh?).  So I laugh a bit, saddle up, and I am saying over and over in my head, amazing scenery...amazing scenery... 

Our "expert trainers" took us up another short path to other corral.  We circle it and enter.  We got to "free ride" (as long as I stayed a bit from other horses).  We walked around the dry corral, wondering aimlessly (me at a distance).  When the time was up, we left the corral, walked alongside the barns, past the stable, out to the parking lot area.  We circled the parking lot and returned to the stable to dismount. 

UHM.  Hello?  Anyone?  Well...let's review.

Nestled in the lush crater of a dormant volcano (true), Koko Crater Stables offers a picturesque backdrop for horseback escapades (escapades?). Visitors can take a one-hour jaunt along the flora-lined trails traversing the crater's verdant interior (Jaunt? There were no flora-lined trails.  There were no trails!). Led by one of the stable's experienced horse trainers, the excursion will provide views of the crater rim (nope), chances to spot native wildlife (uh, nope), and sweeping oceanic panoramas (only ocean I saw was on the drive to the stables) undisturbed by the presence of unspeakably tentacled behemoths.

This Groupon was a BUST. 

Well.  Unless you are a big hearted excitable sixth grade girl that loves animals.  This picture shows the difference between the one at the top (from the Koko Stables website) and the corral here.  Dry, brittle grass.  Not lush.  Sigh.